The God Realm, once suffused with sacred aura, had now become like a hell choked with foul miasma.
The entire God Realm had been occupied by the Evil Sword Immortal. No god, divine envoy, or divine servant could stand against him.
Having already devoured the Rakshasa God, the Evil God King, and the six Sin Gods, his true body's strength had reached half a step into the Divine Emperor realm. If he could devour the last God of Lust, he would immediately pass the divine examination and become a true Divine Emperor.
If a single Supreme God King could fight four or five God Kings, then a Divine Emperor could at least wipe out hundreds of Supreme God Kings—it's a realm beyond the God Realm's limit, a completely different level, even allowing one to travel to higher worlds and meet stronger beings.
Even at half a step into that realm, a heap of First- and Second-Level Gods meant nothing—numbers were meaningless to a half-step Divine Emperor.
Now, the Seven Elements and the other deities had all been defeated. Since their god positions were of completely different power systems from the Evil Emperor seat, the Evil Sword Immortal hadn't killed them; instead, he hoped to subdue them.
After all, he still bore the obsession of returning to the Sword and Fairy world to settle accounts. The previous Evil Sword Immortal's failure had taught him that no matter how strong he became, one person couldn't fight an entire world. He needed a retinue.
Once he became a Divine Emperor and fully mastered the God Realm hub, the God Realm would be completely in his grasp. He could even use his evil thoughts to interfere with divine seat inheritance in the God Realm—just like he did controlling Bibi Dong—turning all the gods into puppets.
Although the power of these gods was far inferior to that of the Sword and Fairy world, there was a benefit to lower-tier power systems: comprehending laws to become a god was easier than in higher worlds—those gods were simply weaker. After entering a higher world, as long as they weren't discovered, they could hide for a while and, using the partial laws already grasped, deepen their understanding to soon become stronger contemporary experts.
The Evil Sword Immortal arrived at the God Realm hub, where the data of all god positions in the God Realm and the method to reopen the God Realm gate were recorded.
With such massive data, even he would need a considerable amount of time to master it.
He noticed that the god positions of the Fire God, Sea God, and God of Music were undergoing inheritance—new gods would soon appear. The Asura God and Angel God were even undergoing seat elevation. Unfortunately, he couldn't stop it yet, since he hadn't seized the hub.
He also knew that as long as Tianlin lived, using evil thoughts to control these new gods would be useless. The power of the Evil Spirit Pearl could be dispelled by the Holy Spirit Pearl. Therefore, his top priority was only one thing: reopen the God Realm gate, then go to the Douluo Continent to snatch back the God of Lust and devour her, completely achieving the Divine Emperor seat.
Just then, he noticed, opposite the Angel God, a god position that had yet to be inherited.
It was the God of the Fallen Angel, with the first recorded god being Lucifer. As expected, the first Fallen Angel across many parallel worlds really was him. But in this world, he seemed to have died in the God Realm war of that era, and the god position hadn't had time to be passed on, becoming a vacant seat stored in the God Realm hub.
"God of the Fallen Angel—well, well, didn't expect such a nice gift left for me," the Evil Sword Immortal sneered.
He held Qian Xunji's soul fragments and evil thoughts in his hand. Conveniently, when he was in the human world, he had gathered quite a bit of human Seven Deadly Sins. Although in both quality and quantity they fell far short of the Seven Sin Gods, they were enough to manufacture a puppet.
Even without controlling the hub, under current rules, Bibi Dong, a First-Level God who had ascended to the God Realm, had two slots for bringing people up.
With Qian Xunji's soul in hand, the Evil Sword Immortal could take advantage of those slots, have the hub rebuild him a body, then, like the Bat King, use sin power to craft a puppet to inherit the Fallen Angel god position.
Poor Bibi Dong—those two slots were originally intended for Hu Liena and Yu Xiaogang. Even though Yu Xiaogang was dead, she could have used divine authority to resurrect and bring him up. Now one slot had been inexplicably taken by Qian Xunji, leaving only Hu Liena. Yu Xiaogang would have to remain dead.
After all, if Bibi Dong regained her senses, to her current self, Yu Xiaogang wasn't as important as her nearly-as-daughter Hu Liena.
To fully seize the God Realm hub, by the Evil Sword Immortal's estimation, would take at least five days—which would be five years in the human world. But to merely open the gate, three days would suffice—meaning three years in the human world. That would be the day the decisive battle between Tianlin and the Evil Sword Immortal's forces began.
This time still wasn't quite enough for Tianlin. Elevating a god seat wasn't the same as inheriting one. Chen Xin had spent four full years just to elevate a Second-Level God to a First-Level God. Now Tianlin had to elevate a God King to a Supreme God King. Even with talent several times greater than Chen Xin's, conservatively, it would take six years. Fortunately, with dual cultivation through the Heavenly Snow power with Qian Renxue, there was some hope.
Elsewhere, as the continent's emperor, Gu Ran was the first to receive the intel from Chen Xin and Ning Fengzhi.
He decisively summoned all powerhouses above Soul Sage across the continent. Protecting the continent was the duty of everyone—responsibility should never rest on one person alone.
Soul masters enjoyed special privileges; at times like this, they should use their martial souls to protect the people.
At Douluo Martial Soul Academy, aside from Tianlin and Huan Yin, who were striving to become gods, and Gu Ran, who as emperor needed to command all, the Emperor Battle Team gathered once again, diligently practicing the seven-in-one fusion technique. Seven Douluo-level powerhouses fusing could temporarily exert power above demi-god; they all wanted to do their part.
However, since Dugu Yan and Yu Tianheng already had the Ice-Fire Thunder Dragon fusion technique, they did not participate.
The remaining Oslo, Yu Feng, Shi Mo, Shi Mo, and even the new empress Ye Lingling did not miss out. But to unleash the full seven-in-one power, they were still short two people.
Young people should work with young people. Among the younger generation today, aside from those inheriting god positions, there were only a handful who could match the Emperor Battle Team.
Oscar, with his Mirror Sausage, could use Heaven-and-Earth Primordial Spirit Slash and Extreme Curse Reversal of Yin and Yang—effects no weaker than fusion techniques—so he did not participate.
Bai Chenxiang's talent was still a bit lacking. The two substitutes ended up being Zhu Zhuqing and Shui Bing'er.
There was no need to introduce Zhu Zhuqing—she had long since joined the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect, with ample resources and having gone through the Sea God Island trials; she was now a Titled Douluo.
Shui Bing'er possessed a once-in-a-century prodigious talent. In the original work, had the Shrek Seven Monsters not eaten immortal herbs, no one aside from Tang San and Oscar would have surpassed her. In recent years, with Oscar's eighth spirit ability's boosts, she had cultivated to Soul Douluo, and with her overwhelmingly strong Ice Phoenix martial soul—now completely under her control and possessing Extreme Ice—she could contend with some Titled Douluo.
If Zhu Zhuqing were carelessly frozen and lost her speed, she really wouldn't be Shui Bing'er's match.
These two were qualified to join the new Emperor Battle Team.
United as one, everyone held in a pent-up breath. They felt they had received so much help from Tianlin that if, when he needed help the most, they could only be spectators cheering from behind, then what kind of brothers would they be?